This is the terrifying moment Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear team came under attack from a baying mob who stoned their vehicles as they fled Argentina over the Falklands row.

Jeremy Clarkson and colleagues yesterday cut short filming in the country after being advised to leave following protests by local Falklands war veterans, upset over the use of a number plate that is being seen as a reference to the 1982 conflict.

This clip, uploaded to YouTube, appears to show protestors gathering ahead of a convoy of sports cars driving past late at night. The vehicles are being led by a police car, which puts it's sirens on as they speed past.

You can hear the sound of what appears to be rocks or other objects being thrown at the passing cars.

Remarkable pictures of the once-flash cars have been posted on Twitter today, showing them apparently abandoned by the side of the road and with smashed windows.

Clarkson’s Porsche - which had the offending number plate - is seen covered in mud with a shattered windscreen.

A red Lotus that was also used in filming is seen with two of its side windows put out and glass shards across the back seat. A third vehicle used by one of his Top Gear co-presenters, a Ford Mustang, was reportedly also abandoned.

Earlier today we reported that Top Gear production crew had attempted to leave Argentina by road, in the wake of the row over the use of number plates that antagonised locals people.

It was when they crossed the town of Tolhuin on their way to the Chilean city of Punta Arenas that demonstrators stoned their vehicles at a petrol station.

An Argentinian technician hired for the Top Gear shoot is said to have been injured after a stone thrown by one of the demonstrators hit him in the face. He reportedly refused medical attention after an ambulance was sent to treat him.

The violence they faced - and news more angry demonstrators were waiting for them a few miles up the road - eventually forced them to abandon plans to continue towards the Chilean border via the Argentinian city of Rio Grande.

They are understood to have diverted instead to a remote road leading to the Radman or Bellavista Pass to cross into Chile.

The Porsche showing the controversial registration plate

Meanwhile a local official today said the three presenters and programme chiefs had not travelled by road but instead flown out of Ushuaia to an undisclosed destination outside of Tierra del Fuego province.

The impromptu end to Clarkson’s south American adventure came after they spotted the number plate on the Porsche he was driving - H982 FKL - appeared to reference the Falklands War.

Top Gear producers insisted the plate had not been chosen deliberately and was a pure coincidence.

But as paranoia gripped the southern Argentinian city of Ushuaia, officials upped the ante against Clarkson and his co-producers by accusing them of 'deliberate provocation'.

The Top Gear trio and their film crew are understood to have packed up and left three days ahead of schedule after a tense meeting at the Hotel Arakur in Ushuaia where they were staying.

A regional government minister had to sit in on the reunion to keep the peace.

Local war veteran association member Osvaldo Hilliar, referring to the Falklands by their Spanish name, said: “Our position from the outset was to demand the withdrawal of the TV team from our province, which includes the Malvinas, by 8pm yesterday, with the warning we’d organise a demonstration to reject their provocation if not.

“What they did was an offence that through no coincidence was committed in the capital of the Malvinas, without any regard to local feeling about this cause.

“They said they didn’t want to upset anyone but we know the British have lied for the last 200 years. We told them we couldn’t guarantee their security if they didn’t leave.”

Mariano Plecity, the regional government minister who sat in on the meeting as mediator, announced afterwards: “The British group agreed to leave Tierra del Fuego voluntarily before the deadline was up, with some leaving by air and others by road.”

The Argentinians insist the Falklands - or Malvinas - belong to them

The cars they had been using to film a special due to screen next March reportedly remained in a shed in a ski resort near Ushuaia after being stopped by war veterans who set up a roadblock to stop them.

The protestors also interrupted the final days’ filming after spotting the controversial number plates on the car despite officials’ insistence a day earlier that they would be only be used when the vehicles were being driven on the road to avoid fines.

Local government chief Sergio Araque said: “We share the opinion of the Ushuaia War Veterans Association, that this was intentional provocation by the Top Gear team, and agreed that they should leave Tierra del Fuego province by yesterday afternoon.

“We provided two police cars to escort them to the border with Chile and asked the Director of Borders to corroborate that they had left the same night.”

Clarkson’s Porsche was given permission to enter Argentina by the country’s Foreign Affairs ministry.

He flew into Buenos Aires on September 17 before heading to the ski resort of Bariloche to start a 1,350 mile filmed trek along the country’s famous Patagonian Highway - route 40 - to the world’s southernmost city of Ushuaia.

The controversy over his number plate erupted as he neared the city.

Leading daily Clarin, predicting Clarkson was unlikely to come out unscathed, said: “This is highly sensitive for Argentinians and he could have problems.”

Angry locals took to Twitter today to gloat over the apparent early deparure. One said: “It looks like Jeremy Clarkson got a taste of his own medicine."

The 54-year-old presenter has yet to comment on the row.

Clarkson has made a habit of insulting his foreign hosts during Top Gear’s jaunts abroad.

In August Ofcom ruled he deliberately used racist language when he referred to an Asian man as a ‘slope’ during Top Gear’s Burma special. He was forced to apologise in May after appearing to mumble the N-word as he sang a racist rhyme for Top Gear.

TV chiefs in London were said at the time to have summoned him to a meeting and given him a final warning.

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Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner has made the Falklands a government priority and attacked Britain repeatedly over the islands since taking over the reigns of power following the death of her husband Nestor.

She pledged an 'eternal fight' for the Falklands in one rabble-rousing speech although she insisted it would be one based on diplomatic pressure not violence.

Andy Wilman, Top Gear’s executive producer, said of Clarkson’s ‘offensive’ number plate yesterday: “Top Gear production purchased three cars for a forthcoming programme.

“To suggest that this car was either chosen for its number plate, or than an alternative number plate was substituted for the original one, is completely untrue.”